Migraine - A world of pain

Migraines affects thousands of people around the word each day and it can cause loss of speech, dizziness, nausea and even temporary blindness.

What is a migraine?

Migraines are severe, recurring, and painful headaches. They can be preceded or accompanied by sensory warning signs and other symptoms.

Migraine is a common and disabling condition. In the Global Burden of Disease Study by the World Health Organization, updated in 2013, migraine was found to be the sixth highest cause worldwide of years lost due to disability. Migraine attacks sometimes increase in frequency over time.

The extreme pain that migraines cause can last for hours or even days.

To be classified as being a migraine sufferer, one of the following symptoms must be present.

Nausea

Vomiting

Photophobia (sensitivity to light)

Phonophobia (sensitivity to noise)

Facts about migraines:

· Some people who experience migraines can clearly identify triggers or factors that cause headaches, such as allergies, light, and stress.

· Some people get a warning symptom before the start of the migraine headache.

Many people with migraine can prevent a full-blown attack by recognizing and acting upon the warning signs.

· Over-the-counter (OTC) medications may eliminate or reduce pain, and specific medications may help some people with migraine.

· People who have severe attacks can take preventive medicines.

· The pain of migraine can be classified by at least two of the following:

One side of the head at a time

Is moderate to severe

Is throbbing

Is aggravated by movement

Other symptoms of a migraine

As well as the above, other migraine symptoms that may be experienced include:

· Osmophobia (sensitivity to smell)

· Auras (visual disturbances, such as flashing lights, seeing sparks, difficulty focusing, or having blind spots or lost vision)

Migraine headache has been documented for thousands of years, and neurologists say it's one of the most neglected conditions worldwide and is currently incurable. Today migraine impacts 15 percent of the population. Women are more likely to experience migraine than men, which is thought to be due to hormonal factors. While there does seem to be some genetic link to a person's chances of having migraines, there's no consistently proven cause and no one treatment appears to work for everyone.

Risk Factors for Chronic Migraine

Transition from episodic mgraines ( less than 14 per month ) to chronic migraine ( more than 15 per month ) is associated with well-recognized, potentially treatable risk factors. Some examples of risk factors include:

What causes or triggers a migraine?

The cause of migraines is not yet known.

It is suspected that they result from abnormal activity in the brain. This can affect the way nerves communicate as well as the chemicals and blood vessels in the brain. Genetics may make someone more sensitive to the triggers that can cause migraines.

· Physical and emotional: Lack of sleep or oversleeping, illness such as a cold or flu, back and neck pain, poor posture, physical overexertion sudden and/or vigorous exercise, arguments, excitement and muscle tension, relaxation after stress (weekend headache). Low blood sugar and jet lag can also act as triggers. Stress, depression, anxiety, excitement, and shock can trigger a migraine.

· Medications: Some sleeping pills, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) medications, and the combined contraceptive pill have all been named as possible triggers.

Migraine stigma in the workplace

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Stigma is defined as society´s tendency to minimize or discriminate against a characteristic, trait, or disease. Stigma leads to prejudice, discrimination, loss of

status, and a tarnishing of an individual´s identity. Stigma is both a negative consequence of Migraine itself and a barrier to care, because it affects how we seek and access care.

Stigma got attached to Migraine somewhere around the 18th Century. Since that time, the disease is properly named as ‘Migraine’ but the stigma has been attached to the word.

Around the 1700s people started to look at Migraine as a disease of women who were overly sensitive and trying to escape from their social responsibilities. There is a statement that “all the women of Paris are incapacitated by Migraine and they´re not doing what they should do.”

Not only the patients were looked upon and made fun of in this way but the doctors who took care of them were viewed as incompetent people who were enabling this behavioral problem of women.

Ever since then there´s been this recurrent theme and negative view of people with Migraine. We´re kind of stuck with that.

One of the serious challenges for people experiencing migraines is discrimination in the workplace. Due to a pervasive awareness gap about the disabling impact migraines have on individuals, in the work environment, employers may perceive persons who suffer from as weak, lazy, lacking self-discipline, and exaggerating their symptoms. Contributing to these misperceptions are common beliefs among people that their own mild and tolerable headaches are migraines, when they are not, and the fact that the debilitating pain of migraines is useen and hard to measure.

Because these misperceptions are common, employers may believe that persons with migraines are inconsiderate, unable to plan because they have to miss a meeting or interrupt their work temporarily to cope when a migraine occurs, and/or use migraines as an excuse to avoid their responsibilities. The result is working persons with migraines often feel guilty about struggling to fulfil their obligations and often experience depression as a result. Women with migraines

are 41 percent more likely to be depressed than those without a history of migraines.

However, misperceptions are not an excuse for employers to discriminate against working persons who live with migraines. There really need to be more awareness campaigns for migraine sufferers.

Compiled using information from the following sources: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/148373.php https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/chronic-migraine/ https://americanmigrainefoundation.org/resource-library/identifying-treating-migraine/ https://migraineagain.com/migraine-stigma-at-work/ https://patientsrising.org/migraine-workplace-discrimination/